Seminário do Departamento de Física - Mestre Hugo Costa

Seminário DF

Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica, Portugal

Sala de Seminários Nº 213 - Edifício I

25 de Junho de 2025 às 14h

Recent Progress in Solar-Pumped Lasers at the NOVA FCT

MSc Hugo Costa

CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica, Portugal

 Abstract:

The urgency of climate change mitigation has driven scientific research and technological advancements in the pursuit of sustainable energy solutions, positioning solar energy as one of the most promising renewable resources to help reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Solar-pumped lasers are specifically designed to directly harness and convert a portion of the Sun’s incoherent radiation into coherent laser light, paving the way for the advancement of environmentally friendly laser technology. Nearly two decades ago, our research team at the NOVA University of Lisbon embarked on this topic with the goal of significantly enhancing the performance of solar-pumped lasers, whose endeavors positioned us at the forefront of this field. This seminar highlights the latest advancements of this renewable technology accomplished by our research team through pioneering experiments with Ce:Nd:YAG as a novel active medium for solar lasers and the exploration of innovative schemes for simultaneous pumping of multiple media. Notable progress included the establishment of new records in solar laser efficiency for both multimode and fundamental mode regimes and attaining the lowest threshold pump power for solar laser emission. Significant improvements were also achieved in thermal management and solar tracking error compensation capacity, which have resulted in enhanced laser output power stability. These developments are critical for the practical application of solar-pumped lasers.

Hugo Costa Brief Bio:

Hugo Costa terminou o Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Física na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade NOVA de Lisboa em 2018. Iniciou o seu Doutoramento em 2019 com o objetivo de desenvolver sistemas mais eficientes para produção de laser solar com múltiplos cristais, tendo-se depois tornado bolseiro de investigação em 2021. O seu trabalho envolve design e otimização de sistemas, bem como construção e realização de testes de protótipos para produção de laser solar multimodo e monomodo.